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Tactical Cognition?

Any thought or decision that interacts with another’s is Tactical – whether in cooperation or competition.


Every decision, major or minor, spontaneous or considered, has a cost called “Cognitive Load”. We each have a capacity in this area, same as any other aspect of life. Learn to be aware of  Cognitive Load, how to manage it and prepare for it ahead of time. Ever had your mind go blank, not known what to do or say? The consequences of “Brain-Freeze’ can be catastrophic for a doctor, legal counsel, negotiator, or your family in a car, as well as for a police office or warfighter.


Think about it…whether you are struggling for advantage or supporting a team-mate’s needs, your purpose is to anticipate another person’s thoughts and actions. The same skills are involved. Only the motivation and effect are different.

More concrete than “the Inner Game of”…

…..More tangible than a “Mental Edge”.


It’s not yet another “Art of War” or

“Book of Five Rings” interpretation seminar.


Tactical Cognition, and management of Cognitive Load is measurable, quantifiable, on 4 Performance Dimensions (PD). This means you can know how you ranked on 4 defined attributes, and how much you improved on any one of them since last time. No longer a feeling that you just wave a hand at. Each PD is an asset with a numeric score and a real-world value. Together, they form a profile of how you approached the problem this time. Individuals differ in what combination of PDs they have relied on in the past. In this way, it is a little like an MBTI profile. But your PD profile is not intrinsic, it is learned from past experience. Research has demonstrated that effort focused on one of these PDs can increase it, actually changing how you view and approach a challenge. Nothing magical. Through the activities we teach you, you learn a new way to learn.

It’s not “Mind Mapping”

Mind Mapping tends to be Declarative knowledge–what a thing is. We work more closely with Procedural knowledge–what to do and how to do it. It is action-based. This means we are interested in decisions based on conditions. Recognizing cues in a situation and responding in a way that resolves the situation or shifts it in a favorable direction.

There IS no “Ultimate Strategy”.


If there ever was and it worked, wouldn’t everybody be drawn to it?

Then what? Total Stasis. Nonsense.


What’s the old quote from folks on the ground? “No strategy has ever survived a day in the trenches.”  We try to maintain consistency, but life keeps coming down to individual decisions.


Every time this illusion of “Ultimate” strategy, tool or approach appears, someone neutralizes it. They must.


Read Edward Luttwak’s classic “The Logic of Paradox” and get back to me.


This point is Central:

People make mistakes. Many of these are not at the strategic level, but at the tactical level. Many tactical mistakes are due to a moment of Overload.


We would all like to do two things:

and,


We must treat the world as if other people are “doing stuff” too. We must learn to live where we actually are, inside a huge dynamic system.


Dynamic? System?

These words are ‘painted onto’ things these days to sell them. Is there  substance under the paint?


Dynamic does not simply mean  “energetic” or “it changed”. It means that there are multiple active parties, whose actions interact and feed back with each other, so that ‘something bigger’ emerges from the interaction, appearing to have a life of its own. Effects of actions might be smaller or larger than expected, or completely different in character. There will always be multiple effects, some of which will get together and generate effects of their own.


System does not mean ‘here are some cool things I gathered up’. It means a set of principles or rules governing a range of activities. Because of the structure of these principles, the activities tend to circle back into themselves, reinforcing the structure. Connections can become very complex. Many systems work in a ‘barely stable’ condition, so that the system collapses and has to restart.

In the areas of Life important to you

           do you consider yourself more of a:












Would you like to take a step upwards, in getting a conscious grasp on what we mostly tend to fumble through, trying to do our best?


We are in an exciting moment in history, with change flying in every direction at once. Becoming a part of that just takes INITIATIVE.

Commuter


“Quick Oil Change” Customer


Casual web-surfer

Motorhead


Pit Crew member



“Power User”

Or


Or



Or

Here, It’s literally HANDS-ON.

“Learning by Doing” usually means discussion, or exercises on paper or computer. That just won’t do here.


It is pretty safe to say that this program is Unique in using actual martial art drills as a context for learning invigorating cognitive training developing tactical decision-making and Initiative.


You will make light contact with each other’s hands/arms, but there will be NO striking contact or falling down. In fact you can do everything you learn here at a table in a restaurant and get only some strange looks.


CLASS DESCRIPTIONS here.


Whether you are competing in


Whether you are cooperating  on a team


Whether you are negotiating


You are using the same brain under pressure of time and consequence, with incomplete / unreliable information, and using your actions to influence those of others. You are using the same general skills.

Staying on-topic in an interaction is literally self-defense with some people, isn’t it?


“Keeping Up” is not a long-term option. The slightest interruption at modern paces, and you’re playing catch-up again—in some occupations, somebody’s dead. A financial budget is one good metaphor for CLM (Cognitive Load Management)—the difference between spending and investment is real and immediately critical.


Learning CLM and habituating Initiative is a critical fundamental life skill. Defining profitable initiatives in a domain along with favorable conditions, danger signs and deadlines, is the ultimate goal of this program. It depends upon developing an actual perception of networks , dynamics and systems from the inside, and of your personal own cognition. With practice you develop their application through efficient learning procedures, Situation Awareness and Naturalistic Decision Making.